The present invention relates to a fishing rod, particularly to the form of the grip of a fishing rod, on the top of which a reel is mounted.
A conventional fishing rod, on the top of which a reel is mounted, is discloses, for instance, in the Japan Patent Application (OPI) No. 177840/90 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application"). A fishline being unwound from the reel is guided by fishline guides on the top of the rod so that the fishline is moved to the tip of the rod.
There is an enough distance between the fishline and the top of the grip of the conventional fishing rod in front of the reel rest thereof before a fish is hooked. However, when a heavy fish is hooked, the fishing rod is flexed downward to decrease the distance between the fishline and the top of the grip so that the fishline comes into contact with a hand grasping the grip, and therefore becomes likely to injure the hand's thumb or portion adjoining the thumb or burn the thumb or the portion if the fishline is quickly moving. Besides, even if no fish is hooked, the fishline sometimes comes into contact with the thumb of the hand to hinder the fishing person from concentrating on fishing. Although the grip is sometimes grasped by the hand with its thumb located off the side of the fishing rod to cope with these problems, it is difficult to manipulate the rod or apply an enough holding force thereto if the grip is grasped by the hand in that manner.